[B-Greek] Matt 27.30 Why the Imperfect ETUPTON

Wayne Leman wayne_leman at sil.org
Wed Aug 22 19:21:39 EDT 2007


Mitch, Greek doesn't have Past, Present, or Future tenses. It only has two 
time categories which have traditionally been called tenses, Imperfect and 
Aorist. But they do not reflect past, present, or future action as English 
tenses do. So when we look at the "tenses" of this verb, the Imperfect of 
ETUPTON may indicate that the beating action continued for a period of time 
(or was "incomplete"), from the point of view of the author. This is 
actually closer to the linguistic category of aspect than tense, a topic 
which has been discussed here many times in the past.

Wayne
----
Wayne Leman
Better Bibles Blog:
http://englishbibles.blogspot.com

>
> KAI EMPTUSANTES EIS AUTON ELABON TON KALAMON KAI
> ETUPTON EIS THN KEFALHN AUTOU
>
> Why is ETUPTON in the Imperfect and not the Present?
> These guys grab (ELABON) the staff/reed and then
> subsequently begin beating him. So, should we not
> expect the Present or even the Future tense, not the
> Past tense? The beating comes later after they pick up
> this staff.
>
> Mitch Larramore
> Sugar Land, Texas




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